Of Light and Shadow
by DarkenedMartyr
Summary: A Kingdom Hearts Original fic. I'm writing without front planning, so please read and review, or I won't bother writing more. First chapter is up, I hope people enjoy. Story revolves around an OC keyblader, plus a twist on some of the powers and choices.
1. Awakening

All I claim credit for in this piece are my own ideas and characters; the rest all goes to the wonderful crew that created the original.

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_Light and Shadow will be your weapons._

Opening his eyes, Markus immediately shut them again, covering his eyes from the light pouring into his window. He groaned, reaching up towards his window. After several failed attempts, he finally caught hold of the string and sent the blinds falling down.

"_Isn't today a Saturday? Damn it, why am I up so early?"_ he complained mentally, before trying to recall his dream.

"Light and shadow, huh?" he spoke into the empty room, gazing around, slowly working up the will to get out of bed. After a few minutes of thought, he pushed himself out of bed, stretching and switching into a new pair of clothes. _"Interesting as that is, dreams are dreams, and reality doesn't involve such abstract concepts,"_ he thought, leaving his room.

After a silent breakfast, Markus caught himself in the mirror on his way out. Staring himself down, he sighed, trying to make his hair look like less of a mess. He was an average teenager in nearly every aspect; 5'11", an athletic build developed by constant activity. He wore black jeans with a dark green shirt, had black and white sweat bands on his wrists, and a pair of bulky headphones around his neck.

His head seemed to be the only problem; at its roots, his hair was black. After a certain point of growth, however, it shot into straight white. It only happened when he grew his hair out long, so it wasn't usually a problem; only his hair was quite long right now, covering the tops of his eyes currently, and passing his shoulders in the back. The doctors had never been able to give him an excuse for this discoloration. Secondly, his eyes were both a foggy grey color, something that had caused him ridicule in earlier years.

"_Hell, who didn't get made fun of in middle school?"_ he joked mentally, finally letting his hair fall back to wherever it wanted to be that day. He grabbed his wallet, and stepped outside into his town; twilight town. Covering his eyes again, he let his vision adjust to the new source of light before starting towards the hangout spot, where his friends would meet him. "Maybe they'll show up in a few hours…" he said to himself, pulling on his headphones. "_Only Olette would get up this early on a Saturday,"_ he thought bleakly, _"and she knows better than to show up early to the usual spot and wait on us."_

Stepping into the Back Alley from Tram Common, he soon found himself sitting back against the old couch he and his friends had brought back here, once they'd started to hang out here. He yawned, covering his mouth. Suddenly, the music flowing into his ears stopped, and all he could hear was his heartbeat pounding in his head. He began to fall.

There was nothing around him, only shadow. Instinct told him to turn his body, just in time for his feet to hit level ground. Light exploded from beneath him, only this time, it wasn't so blinding. The floor was revealed to be made of some sort of stained glass, with a picture of him in the middle. Surrounding Markus' portrait were smaller spheres; one revealed his group of friends from twilight town, yet the others were all shadowed, and he couldn't understand who they were. Looking back to his picture, he saw he was wearing some sort of black trench coat he didn't recognize; further, there were chains seemingly made of light and shadow holding back his arms, restricting him.

_Time is running out; you must start now_. Markus jumped at the sensation; he knew something had spoken, but he couldn't hear it or see it.

_Do not be afraid; there is merely little time left. Your mind and heart have been closed for so long, that it was almost too late. _

Calming slightly, Markus glanced around again for the source of the voice. "Where am I?" he asked, his mind feeling foggy.

_It matters not. What matters now is that you grasp your power, before you are swallowed whole._

Suddenly, three small podiums rose from the glass, revealing three items; a wand, a sword, and a shield. Markus blinked his eyes as information seemed to pool within him, telling him what each meant. "Power…wisdom…protection…" he murmured.

_Choose one to be your strength. Choose one to be your weakness,_ the voice said calmly. Markus was already sure of what he would do; he strode over to the wand and took hold of it, looking over to the shield and sword. _"With wisdom, I'll have the intellect I need to face anything…with that, along with strength, I should be able to protect others, right?"_ he thought.

_Indeed. But what of yourself?_

"I am of no significance," he thought coolly, feeling the staff disappear in his hands, watching the shield and sword disappear as well. _So be it._

Immediately, the pillar below him began to crash, and he was falling once again. After some time, he landed again, faced now with another stain glass pillar. The images sprawled on this one were confusing. On one side, a dark city was shown, with a dark figure staring from the shadows, his eyes the only distinct part of him. On the other side, a figured was masked by a bright light, silhouetting their body to show an outstretched hand towards him.

_Light and Shadow, Shadow and Light; which do you prefer?_ the voice called to him, causing him to quiver. As he stood, he had one foot on each side of the image, though part of his body was telling him to quickly choose one side, or he would be ripped apart. Within a few seconds, he noticed he was shaking. "I'm afraid?" he asked the air, amazed at the fact. Holding back the tremble, he paused to clear his mind and think. Looking up towards the dark above him, he voiced his claim. "I choose both. Can I do that?"

_You may,_ the voice replied. Suddenly, the tendrils of light and darkness he'd seen before rose up from each side, chaining his arms and pulling downward. Markus winced and tried to pull up his arms, only causing the chains to pull tighter. As either chain threatened to rip him apart at either second, he heard two clear voices from each side shoot through his thoughts. _He's mine._

Markus gritted his teeth and pulled harder on the chains, pushing his muscles farther than they should go. "Who said I belonged to either of you?" he asked the air, causing a chilling silence to settle, over his mind and the area around them. "I'm choosing you both, not the other way around. So work like you're supposed to, damn it!" he shouted, ripping the chains from the stained glass, shattering the pillar in the process. He could feel himself falling, but it was of no consequence this time around; he merely stared at the chains still hanging from his arms. He felt a presence from each one, and while they clashed in nearly every way, both were now silent, simple properties as they should be.

_You have your weapons; when the time comes, call upon them._

Markus felt himself being shaken, and immediately his eyes shot open and he sprang up, looking at his arms with wide eyes.

"Woah, Markus, chill man. What happened, did you get kicked out of your house and crash here for the night?" he heard his friend Hayner ask. After a few moments of collecting himself, he turned back, trying to keep a cool expression on his face.

"What? No, just woke up early, came here to wait, and crashed. Had a crazy dream though," he replied, giving a light grin. _"Was that really a dream?" _he asked himself, looking down at his arms again with a heavy breath.

"Well, snap out of that sleep haze man. You know what we're doing today, right? We have a grudge to settle against Seifer. I can't have you hazy for that!" Hayner said as Pence and Olette entered the room. And as the day started off as it normally should have, he thought back to the last words he could remember from the dream.

_Keyblades? What the hell are Keyblades?_


	2. Awakening Pt 2

All content in this story besides the original content belongs to the wonderful people who created it.

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Markus looked over the side of the clock tower with a blank look on his face. For the past few days, since he'd had the dream, he'd been distancing himself, trying to get a grip on what reality was again. _"Light and Shadow? Give me a break. The only thing that's happened since that dream is that I've been debating reality and fiction, when I know which is which. This is ridiculous." _Suddenly he heard the door open, and turned to see Olette walk out onto the platform.

"There you are! Where've you been? Do you know how hard it is to get those two to do any work when they're worried sick about you?" Olette asked, smiling as she sat next to him on the side of the tower. Markus laughed a little and shrugged.

"Sorry. I've just had a lot on my mind," he said, trying not to sound too serious.

"What's it been? I mean, you've been off thinking for days now. That doesn't happen too often," Olette said, not looking towards him. Not wanting to explain, he pretended to take it as an insult.

"What, are you saying I'm not a thinker? Come on Olette, that hurts," he said, clutching his chest mockingly. When she turned to look at him, he knew he'd done something wrong. She was pissed, and he was the cause of it.

"Don't try those tricks on me, Markus. I've known you too long for that to work. Now either explain to me what the hell's been bothering you, or get over it, because I don't like it when something's wrong with my friends and they won't let me in!" she shouted, nearly making him lose his balance.

"Alright, alright…you got me," he said, giving a sigh. "Promise this is kept between us?" After she nodded, he began to explain the dream he'd had the day this had all started; the stained glass pillars, the chains, the voices. When he'd finished, she looked at him thoughtfully before speaking.

"No wonder you've been gone so long…You could never just let that go," Olette said calmly. "But they said you'd be in danger, right? And has there been any danger?"

Markus paused, thinking. "Nothing besides the normal faults of my coordination," he said, breathing a sigh and looking up at the sky. "Thanks. Don't know why I couldn't come up with that."

"Neither do I. Come on, you're supposed to be the smart one of the group," Hayner's voice called from around the corner. Both Hayner and Pence stepped into sight, carrying ice cream for the other two. "Really, that's all that's been bugging you? A bad dream? Christ, I thought someone had died," he said, laughing and sitting next to him, Pence sitting next to Olette. Markus turned to growl at Olette, who was smiling.

"What? You only said I couldn't tell them!" She said, laughing and taking an ice cream bar, handing it to Markus before taking her own. Sighing, Markus bit into his bar, still fuming slightly.

"Well you know, people have been going missing over the past few days," Pence said, looking over at Markus. "Who knows? Maybe you're not crazy after all!" he said, trying to sound sincere, but still making the others laugh, even Markus.

"Well, I'm sure we can handle it. Right, Markus?" Hayner said, hitting his friend on the arm. "We have to be in our prime for the struggle! If we can't take some kidnappers, what good are we?"

"Not that much, that's for sure," Markus said, laughing as he and Hayner started to talk about the Struggle this year. Olette sighed and turned towards the sun, now almost set. After a few minutes, she turned to the rest of the group. "It's gonna get dark soon. We'd better get going." Everyone agreed, and soon they were down in station plaza. The sun had set, and street lights were flickering on as they walked.

"So what were you saying earlier about kidnappings, Pence?" Markus asked, seeing that Olette had started to look a bit jumpy.

"Well, there isn't much info being released. But what I do know is that witnesses have said that the kidnappers are moving in the shadows. That's how they sneak up on people," he said, looking around. "Isn't that a scary thought, someone hiding in the shadows, just waiting for-"

"Shut up!" Olette said, smacking Pence on the arm. Markus and Hayner laughed lightly, while Pence rubbed his arm.

"Relax. As long as you've got me and Markus here, we can take whatever anyone throws out," Hayner said.

"As long as they don't have knives," Markus said coolly.

"Or guns," Pence added, causing Hayner to growl. The trio laughed, while Olette stayed close to Markus. While moving down Tram Common, Markus caught a glimpse of a shadow move across the ground.

"The hell? You see that?" Markus asked the group, who looked at him quizzically.

"See what?" Hayner asked, only to see several shadows travel under another light closer to them. Olette screamed, and both Markus and Hayner cursed.

"What in the hell are they?" Hayner yelled, looking around and grabbing a nearby steel pipe before throwing one to Markus.

"Don't ask me," Markus replied coolly, watching the shadows swirl around them before stopping under a light. The small pool of darkness rose upward forming a small creature with large yellow eyes and antennae, the vision focused on Markus.

"Well whatever they are, they're going down," Hayner said, running forward and swinging the pipe like a baseball, hitting the creature in the head and sending it flying back a few feet onto the ground. Markus was about to congratulate him when he saw the creature rise again, now focusing on Hayner.

"Watch it!" Markus shouted, grimacing as he held his place near Pence and Olette as a group of shadows neared them. Hayner batted away the shadows came at him, but the numbers kept increasing.

"These things are ridiculous!" Hayner shouted, turning to smack one away before being caught of guard by one, which leapt at his chest and began to tear at him with claws.

"Hayner!" Olette shouted, running towards him, Pence following after as Markus fended off numerous heartless, yelling as he smacked the heartless off of Hayner's chest. "This is bad…he's bleeding. Oh god, what do we do? Markus? Hayner? Pence?" Olette said, turning to each in tow. Markus growled and looked at the dozens of pairs of yellow eyes now surrounding them under a street light. "_Now would be a good time…_" he thought angrily, gripping the pipe in his hands even more tightly. Suddenly, the scene around him dissolved, and he found himself back on the stained glass pillar.

_They have come. You must call forth your weapons,_ the ominous voice spoke out, causing Markus to turn his head.

"Great, you just explain how and I'll get right on it!" he shouted angrily, looking at his hands. "It's not as if I've done this before!"

_Look deep into yourself, and pull the chains. They will come._

Markus tried to clear his mind, but the fact that he had left his friends currently to fend off the shadows on their own was disconcerting. _"Come on…clear mind, find the chains, hurry,"_ he thought to himself, reaching his arms out in front of him, trying to remember how he'd done it the first time. Suddenly, the chains reappeared, a broken link at the end just as he'd left them. Looking at them stunned, he returned to the matter at hand. "Okay, now what?" He shouted, patience running thin.

_Shape them into your weapons; keyblades._

"What in the hell is a keyblade!" Markus shouted, gripping the chains that were wrapped around his arms tightly in annoyance.

Markus found himself back in the cooling night air, back with his friends, and back surrounded by shadows, now with chains on his arms. Pence and Olette stared with open mouths as Hayner coughed up a bit of blood. "Markus…what are those?" Olette said, stunned.

"Something to fight with," Markus said coolly, whipping the chains. "I'm not about to let some heartless kill my friends and steal their hearts," he shouted, the new word dancing off his tongue. _"Heartless?"_ he questioned himself.

"_The shadows surrounding you,"_ a warm voice answered, seemingly coming from the chain of light. At that moment, a heartless decided to go for an attack, only to be brought down by a whip of the chain of light. The moment it touched the creature, it dissolved into the night.

"_Come on already, call us out. We've waited long enough, don't you think?"_ a harsher voice spoke from the chain of shadow. _"Use all that pent up rage and will to protect for something useful."_ Markus frowned at the commentary coming from both sides, but information was finally flowing into his head.

"_Lumen._" The chain of light shot forward, filling the area with light, causing the heartless to back away. Within seconds, the first keyblade was formed, a representation of light; from the hilt to the tip, the blade was made of nearly pure white. The handle seemed to wrap around Markus' hand and arm, leading up to his shoulder before stopping. Armor of white metal formed around his arm and hand, created in intricate patterns of slender white metal, the armor looking as if more for decoration than for actual guarding. The blade itself looked sturdier, but just as complex. Twisting pieces of the light filled led up to the blade's tip, where beams of the white metal shot out at every forty-five degree angle, creating an image of the sun; and where the flame would be burned a pure white light, which still lit the area around them.

"_Tenebrae,_" he said, looking to his other hand. As if repeating the process, the black chain shot forward, sucking in all natural light as if it were a void; the streetlights around them shattered, sending little pieces of glass raining down around them, leaving the only light remaining coming from _Lumen_. Tendrils of black crawled up his arm just as the light had, pausing once again at his shoulder. This armor was made of a mixture of red and black, a thicker and heavier material, and the twisted shape seemed more like it was meant to take over the arm rather than protect it. The blade shot out from his hand as a spike, rather than the beamlike structure of the previous weapon. At the tip, a mass of shadow began to form, matching the blade of light in opposition, and from that mass seemed to drag two more spikes, a dark red color, making this blade look more like a key than the other.

Staring at the two blades for a moment, he walked towards the heartless, who were staring wide eyed at the transformation. Markus' grey eyes now held two extremes; one iris a very lightly tinted blue, the other a darker, blood red. His mind did not currently work, he found; rather he was being led by the instinct of the two factors under his command. As heartless began to pounce, Markus slashed them into dust without effort, skills not his own. Olette and Pence watched from the sidelines, gaping, while Hayner's breathing started to return to a somewhat normal state as he applied pressure to his wounds. _"Whatever the hell's going on…Markus is going to win. No doubt about that,"_ Hayner thought, giving a smirk.

Within a minute, the heartless were gone, and Markus walked back to his friends, eyes still calm. "Are you alright, Hayner?" Markus asked, trying to force a smile.

"Do I look alright?" Hayner said, grinning weakly, a bit of blood still running down his cheek. Laughing, Markus shook his head before the keyblades and the armor over his arms began to fade into the air, just as they had come. "Well…They're gone. Come on, let's get you to the hospital. Pence, Olette, you come too. They could come back." All three friends nodded as Markus helped support Hayner, helping him limp into the dark.

Watching from a nearby alleyway, a figure in a long black coat watched the group walk away, mouth agape. "Who the hell is this guy?" he muttered to himself, his voice raspy and deep. Collecting himself, he raised a hand behind him, a portal of darkness appearing behind him. _"Diz needs to know about this,"_ he thought before stepping into the darkness, disappearing without a trace of his presence.


End file.
